


Blinded By The Faith In Humanity Sinning

by BeanedGreenBean



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Abuse, Abusive Parents, Anal Fingering, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Church AU, First Time, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Homophobia, Hurt/Comfort, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Sex, Smut, Underage Drinking, Underage Drug Use, but its just weed and cigarettes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-11
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:02:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23595781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeanedGreenBean/pseuds/BeanedGreenBean
Summary: Patton is a good Christian boy who was taught all his life that homosexuality was a sin. At school, he meets Remus, who in Patton’s eyes has strayed from God’s light with the way he acts vulgarly and the punk attire he typically wears, tattoos, piercings and all. He tries to befriend him in hopes of “showing him the way so he doesn’t burn in Hell”, but ends up actually becoming friends, perhaps something even more, with him.
Relationships: Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Thomas Sanders, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders, Remus/Patton, Thomas/Roman - Relationship
Comments: 24
Kudos: 108





	1. Prologue

Ah, yes. Sunday. Every Sunday Emile had the same routine with his husband. Wake up, try to go back to sleep and fail miserably because your husband won’t let you have just five more minutes, shower, get dressed, go to church. Even as the pastor of the church, not even he wanted to get up early to give the sermon. He was never a huge fan of eight o’clock mass. It always seemed far too early in his opinion. Ten o’clock mass onward he felt much more awake and like his usual chipper self. He lets out a small sigh and a soft smile falls upon his face when he looked over at his husband, Remy, who stood off to the side on the altar, pushing his glasses up a bit further to protect his eye from the bright morning light that poured into the church from the windows and stained glass. There was never a time that Emile could think of that he wouldn’t get butterflies in his stomach and not find himself smiling any time he looked at his husband as if it were the first time they started dating all those years ago. Now they were happily married and they both could agree they have a wonderful life. 

Emile looks down at his watch. 7:50. “I guess we could start letting people in.” He mumbles. 

He gives a nod to the organist and she starts playing, signaling that people can start filing in and taking their seats. He smiles seeing familiar faces who came every Sunday. There was the one woman who always kept to herself in the back, usually dressed in a bright floral shirt of some sort. The family of who sat towards the front dressed all neat and proper. Their son is a very kind young boy; always one for helping others. A young lady who had just recently gotten engaged to her now fiance. He remembered talking to them about being the one to marry the two. They were quite a nice couple. He could see them doing very well together. Oh! There’s the couple with their new baby. Oh my gosh, that baby was so cute. He was honestly pretty excited to be doing their baptism later that week. 

His attention gets drawn back to himself when he hears the organ’s music stop. He blinks for a moment. Oh dear, how the time flies. He must have let his mind wander again. Oh well. He begins the mass as he usually does after thanking the organist, going through the motions of each part with a polite smile that never leaves his face, and before he even realizes it, there is a half an hour left and he is on the part where he is going over a part of the bible and then compare it to events happening in today’s time in order to make it more understandable to those who may not understand it as well. Though, he does make sure to make it not sound overly biased towards anything. This part was a time of learning, not brainwashing these poor people into believing nonsense. Some of the things he’s heard other pastors say have blown his mind. 

The half-hour flies by and after closing with the morning prayer, he bids everyone a good day and to join him in the other room for breakfast. A decent amount of the people do so and they all go about snacking on bagels and water or juice before ten o’clock mass rolled around. 

Emile walks around and mingles with the people, knowing full well Remy was doing the same. He always enjoys talking to the people after each mass, ever the social butterfly; it always made him feel closer to his community. 

Slowly but surely, those from the first-morning service begin heading out, as those who did get their five-more-minutes filed in for the later one. A few dedicated families and friends of the community took their seats once again. Emile never understood it much, as they were simply going to hear the same bit a second time, but he enjoyed seeing the familiar faces none the less. The organist ceases her playing once more and Emile thanks her as she too goes to find her seat. Looking up he addresses the room once more beginning his service for the second time that morning.

In the pews the kind, young, helpful boy sat listening attentively for the second time that morning. His family being devout church-goers it was only natural for him to be involved in much of what the church stood for. He sang all the hymns by heart, though that was almost expected of him as he has been part of the church choir the majority of his life. 

This boy in row seven left side of the pews hangs on every word Emile says. Emile smiles at him, ever happy to be able to bring such interest in young lives about the goodness of the world. One final prayer later, leftovers from the morning either get eaten or sent home with families. Emile and Remy help tidy up the church before retiring to their home to begin their day. But this story isn't about Pastor Emile and his husband; don’t worry, you will most definitely see them again. No, this story is about the kind boy who sat through both sermons with wide awed eyes. Patton Hart heads home with his parents ready to begin his Sunday chores and finish up the last bit of his homework before school tomorrow. That is where our story begins...


	2. Chapter 1

While most students were just waking up for school, Patton is humming to himself as he packs his bag to be ready for the day. His mother always told him that it was best to be up early to have a more productive day. He heads downstairs, already showered and dressed, with his bag slung over his shoulder and his golden cross necklace hanging over the collar of his shirt. He sets the bag down by the kitchen table as he walks in, walking over to the breakfast his mother just finished up for him. She is standing by the counter as she finishes up making herself a cup of coffee. 

“Thanks, Mom.” Patton smiles bringing the plate along with a glass of orange juice over to his spot and sitting down. He bows his head and mumbles a soft prayer of gratefulness to the lord above before allowing himself to eat. The breakfast itself was a little bland but still good, eggs and toast, not piled high with meats like his fathers would be. Patton can’t stomach the thought of eating meat, it never sat right with him; that’s alright though, Patton enjoys his eggs just the same. He finishes his plate and is leisurely sipping at his orange juice while watching out the window when his father comes in getting ready to leave for work. 

When finished with his orange juice, he sets the glass down and gathers up his plate and utensils, bringing them over to the sink along with the cup. He washes each item, each one getting a quick scrub before being rinsed off and put into the drying rack next to the sink. He gathers his belongings that were patiently waiting for him beside the table, bringing both straps of his bag over his shoulders. 

“Alright, I’ll be home after school.” He turns to his mother, giving a quick kiss farewell on the cheek.   
“Alright, dear. Let me know if anything changes.” She smiles at her son, watching as he walks to the front door.  
“Yes, ma’am! Have a nice day!” Patton looks back at his parents with a grin before heading out, shutting the door behind him. He takes a deep breath of the refreshing outside air before starting his stroll to the school. Patton had been leaving his house just a tad earlier than usual lately and he excitedly walked towards the reason why.

On the wooded side of Clarendon Ave, the street that leads Patton towards his High School, there is an old tree with a new surprise. Nestled in between two branches about halfway up is a recently built birds nest. Being it's only February, it’s very early in the season for anyone to be nesting; Patton had made it his personal job to check in on the nest each time he walked to and from school. He wasn’t very good at climbing so he only was able to get partway up the tree. Not like staring at the bottom of the nest from his own perch was much of checking in on anything, but it makes Patton happy. He told himself one day he would climb up high enough to take a look, but he had to get to school, not enough time to try to climb any higher than he was used to. After checking, and the triple checking, on his nest, and maybe making small talk with the momma bird inside it, Patton began climbing down, deciding it best if he continued on his way to the school building once again.

As Patton continues on his route to school, he is jarred from his thoughts by the sound of some rather harsh music, as Patton would describe it, blasting from a car even with the windows rolled up as it rushes by, sending a few leaves that were resting on the asphalt into the air to dance in the breeze. The source of this music came from none other than the Alaric twins, Roman and Remus. They park in their usual spot and the heavy music only ceases when they step out of the car. Most people when they think of twins, typically expect some sort of similarity. Well, when it came to Roman and Remus, really the only thing similar about them was their grassy green eyes and their love for Disney. Aside from that, they were polar opposites from one another. Roman’s hair is a lighter brown and styled all neat, feathered out all nice. Remus’ hair is a darker brown and a total mess with a stripe of white in his bangs. Roman is dressed in denim jeans, a t-shirt with a fleece-lined flannel, and tan docs. Remus, on the other hand, is dressed as you would imagine a really stereotypical punk kid would. Ripped black jeans, a grey hoodie that was accompanied by a black denim vest which was adorned with a variety of interesting and quite questionable patches along with a few pins on the front, and heavy black combat boots.

“Remus, I swear you’re gonna be the reason I go deaf with that music and I’m gonna be pissed if I do and I can do shows any more.” Roman rolls his eyes as his brother cackles, both of them slinging their bags over their shoulders.   
“Oh come on, Ro! Don’t be such a pussy. You just gotta get used to it.” Remus elbows his brother jokingly as the two walk beside one another into the school.  
“Look, just because you want to not be able to hear in like, five years doesn’t mean I want to.” Roman chuckles. 

They stop at their lockers before they head to their first class of the day which was science, specifically chemistry. They take their seats, and both of them pull out their phones to scroll through social media as they wait for the bell that would announce the official start of class. Patton walks in shortly after them having walked the rest of the way before joining them in class. He didn’t know the twins well at all simply that he sat next to the one covered in tattoos due to an unfortunate seating chart. Letting out a small sigh he pulls his books out for the class reading over the objectives for the day on the whiteboard in front of them.

The class jumps slightly as the first bell rings in the small room, as the teacher begins attendance as he does at the start of each class; Pat doodles flowers in the margins of his notebook as he waits for the instruction to begin. The teacher, Mr. Freeman, begins the topic of the day, introducing a new lesson; food chemistry. He continues on explaining the chemical properties of preservatives in foods and the problem of adulterants in the market today.   
“This introduces the subject matter of your next project. In pairs, you will research the most common adulterants used today, their chemical properties, and what types of reactions are caused to the food product by using them.” Mr. Freeman explains. Patton quickly jots down the information in addition to what is written on the board. In front of the students, the teacher continues.   
“To prevent any argument amongst yourselves I am going to choose your partners for you, as in previous times you’ve shown me you can't handle picking your own pairs.” he sends a glance at in the twins’ direction causing Remus to smile oh so innocently causing his teacher to subtly rolls his eyes  
“Starting from the left side of the room, columns 1 and 3 look to your right, 2 and 4 please look to your left, that will be your partner for about the next week or two.” Remus looks over and sees he’s with the goody-two-shoes bible thumper kid, making him internally cringe, though he comes to the realization that this could be fun, making him grin. Patton looks at his partner with wide eyes, he quickly attempts to compose himself.

"Um, Hi there I'm Patton, Patton Hart" he holds out his hand to shake. Remus grips his hand maybe a bit too hard as he shakes it, a maniacal grin never leaving his face.   
“Remus Alaric. Nice ta meet ya.” Patton blinks at the forcefulness of the shake and tries to offer a kind smile   
"So um, we’re partners yeah?"  
“Looks like it.” Remus lets go of his hand. Patton returns it to his lap and looks over the notes he took once again. After noticing he’s being watched Patton sighs and looks up at Remus.   
"Are you actually going to help or am I doing this on my own? I don't care if you're not going to but I'd like to know so I can plan what I need to do," He says upfront, not meeting his eyes. Patton was used to this when it came to any group project, everyone dumped the work on him because they knew by doing so they would get a good grade. Why would this walking sin be any different than the other school bullies?

“What kind of heathen do you take me for?” Remus says, pretending to be offended before giggling. “No, seriously, I’ll actually help out. You don’t need to worry about it.”  
Patton looks honestly surprised but breaths out a sigh of relief. "I hope you do mister ‘cause the last partner who said that ditched me with two days left and I’m not letting that happen again."  
“Nope! You’re stuck with me.” He grins at him. Patton nods trying to keep up with the hyper classmate.  
“Great…” Patton mumbles. Remus just keeps going,  
“Today or tomorrow you wanna come over to my place so we can get it started? Sooner we get it done the better.” Patton blinks and smiles slightly.  
"Sure! Um, which day works best for you? I’d just have to ask my parents first to make sure they’re okay with it." The smaller boy explains  
“If you wanna come over today that’s fine. We can hang out in my room with snacks and stuff while we work.” Patton nods in response.  
"Okay sounds good, here I'll give you my number and you can send me your address and stuff," He says writing the number on a sticky note. Remus grins as he takes it. He puts the sticky note on the screen of his phone.  
“Sweet! I’ll text you later today, probably when I’m bored in a dumb class.”  
"Sounds good." Pat giggles slightly 

The two continue about the rest of the class talking about how they are going to layout this project and go back and forth exchanging notes. Patton really has to admit that this walking sin on legs that is Remus was surprisingly nice to talk to. In between their science talk, they shared small casual conversations with one another, and this continued on until the bell rang for the end of the class. Both Remus and Patton hurriedly packed up their things so that they would not be late for their next class.   
“I’ll see you later, Patton,” Remus says with a grin as he quickly slings his bag over his shoulder and heading off to his next class, giving Patton only a chance to wave after him.

As Patton takes his seat in his second class he feels his phone vibrate in his pocket. After getting the notebook he needs out for class, he takes his phone out for a moment to see who the message is from.   
‘8106 peachtree st :P’   
Ah, it was Remus. Patton smiles at the phone and sends back a thumbs-up emoji along with a smiley face. He saves the number as Remus before putting his phone back in his pocket to pay attention to the teacher as the bell rings. 

The rest of the day Patton continues on as normal which typically consisted of him going about his classes with little to no interaction with anyone else because all he was known around the school was the bible thumper who only wanted to shove his beliefs down everyone’s throat and nothing else. Even at lunch, he sat at a corner table all by himself while everyone else chatted and had fun with their friends during this small period of free time during the day. The rest of Patton’s day went as normal, that is until his last period which is gym. Little did Patton realize, is that his gym was shared with Remus. So naturally, he is quite surprised to be met with seeing the other in black booty shorts with glittery neon trim and a muscle tank that read ‘I flexed so hard the sleeves fell off’ rounding the corner of his row of lockers to head out to the gym floor. A grin spreads over the taller boy’s face as he looks at the other. 

“Hey, Patton! I had no idea you were in my gym.”   
“H-Hey Remus. Uh, how are you?” Patton asks, simply trying to be polite while trying not to stare at Remus’ choice of attire.   
“Good, good. Just heading out.”   
“Ah, okay. Um, quick question. Why are you wearing...that?” He gestures to Remus’ outfit in the subtlest way he could.   
“Oh, this? I wear this to help the girls out. Stops the gym teachers who are creeps from eyeballin’ them up ‘cause I usually hang out and talk with them. They ain’t gonna wanna look unless they’re a gay motherfucker, and boy would that be some nice tea to have there.” Remus explains as he adjusts his shorts slightly, his smug grin never leaving his face.   
“I see. I guess I’ll see you out there then.”  
“See ya out there!” Remus calls as he walks past and Patton has to do a double-take to make sure he was not going crazy when noticed that Remus’ ass read ‘Got Cake’. Patton blinks a few times and shakes his head trying to clear his mind of whatever that was. He walks off into his lonely corner of the locker room to change into something much less revealing. After slipping on a pair of sweatpants and a loose old t-shirt, Patton ties his sneakers using the bunny-ear method before mentally preparing himself to walk back out onto the main gym floor. Once he was out in the open again, he definitely wasn’t looking for Remus; but it was impossible not to find him considering the outfit he was in. The boy cringes internally when he sees Remus waving him over.   
“...Hi, Remus” He mumbles walking over to the very flamboyant ball of energy.  
“Hey, Patton! I was just wondering if you’d like to hitch a ride to my place after gym?” Remus grins at Patton.  
“Oh, thanks for the offer but I really have to go home first, I have to tell my parents where I’m going, and check my on my birds too,” he explains looking at the shoe scuffs on the hard rubber floor so his eyes aren’t assaulted by the taller boys’ outfit.  
“You’re birds?” Remus asks, genuinely curious of these little feathered friends of the boy. Patton blushes some but looks up to talk rather excitedly if a little embarrassed about his friends.  
“Yes! I um, I found a nest in a tree that I pass on my walks to and from school. It’s a little early yet for nests so I check up on it and the momma bird whenever I walk by.” he explains, sheepishly realizing he probably sounds dumb now that he’s heard himself out loud. However, Remus’ grin only grows as he listens to Patton as he tells him about the birds.  
“Oh, that’s really cool actually!” Patton smiles shyly and bites his lip unsure how to respond.  
“Thanks, but yeah, I can’t go right over to your place, sorry.” he apologizes.  
“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. I’ll just see ya later then.” Patton nods just and the whistle is blown sending the mass of students to their respective coaches for attendance. With another small, awkward wave he heads over to his side of the gym to await the physical torture, excuse me, physical education to begin. 

After an excruciatingly educational hour of badminton during which Remus was oh so intently playing by sitting off to the side talking to the girls of gossip per usual, the whistle blew once again, encouraging the students to scurry back into the locker rooms to change back into normal clothes. The final bell rings releasing them to the outside world yet again. Remus waves to Patton as he passes him in the hall heading out to meet up with his brother at their car in the parking lot. Patton waves back before heading out with the mass of students who also walked home, head reeling from everything that had happened today, and what still was yet to come when he finally did set foot in Remus’ place.


	3. Chapter 2

Patton walks into his house after that rather long day of school. He slips his shoes off at the door after closing it and leaves his bag next to them before heading into the kitchen where he is greeted by his mother who was finishing up making some apple scones.  
“Hello dear. How was school today?” She hums as she mills about the kitchen, getting a plate to set the pastries on to cool.  
“It was alright. I have a partner project to do for Mr. Freeman’s class. Can I have one?” Patton asks referring to the scones; when he gets a nod of approval he takes one. A smile forms on his face from the warm sweet cinnamon sugar taste.   
“That’s your chemistry teacher, right?”  
“Mhm. The project is on adulterants in food which is pretty much just different chemicals that are used in our food and the reactions that the food has to the chemicals. Oh! My partner for the project invited me over to work on it today. Would that be okay?” He watches her as she mulls it over.  
“I suppose so, but make sure you text me when you get to the house safely. Is it a boy or girl you’re partnered with?” she asks ever nosey.  
“A boy ma’am, his name is Remus,” he makes an odd face remembering the gym outfit. “I was assigned his partner by Mr. Freeman.”  
She nods, satisfied with the answer. “Alright, dear. Just be careful and keep me up to date.”   
Patton smiles and gives a small polite nod. “Yes, ma’am.” He gathers up his things once more and heads to the door. “I will let you know when I get there.” He calls on his way out, shutting the door behind him. 

Remus meanwhile was in the middle of trying to fix up his room. It was rather a mess since he never really cared to clean it. He makes his bed look at least somewhat presentable before shoving a majority of what was on his floor into his closet so that it was out of the way. He takes a step back and looks at his room that he deemed as clean, even though there his basket of laundry he had to put away was shoved under his bed, his desk was covered in CDs he had collected over the years for his radio, and he wasn’t going to lie that there may just be a condom or two thrown behind his bed. Though he very much doubted Patton would look behind there while they were working on their project. With a satisfied nod to his work, knowing that this was probably as clean as he would get it, he heads downstairs to hoard some snacks for him and Patton.   
He slides into the kitchen with his socks and walks over to the pantry, rummaging through to see what snacks he could steal. He grabs some cheddar pretzels, potato chips, and gummy bears for variety. As he heads back to the stairs he pauses to look at his brother who was on his way to the couch to watch some TV. “Hey, Ro. My partner is coming over to work on that project we got assigned in Mr. Freeman’s class today. Just thought you should know.”  
“Sure, whatever. Just make sure to use protection.” Roman teases, earning a playful elbow to the side for that, making both brothers laugh some before parting ways to go to their destinations.

Just as Roman sat down and turned the TV on there was a knock on the door. Patton stood just outside the door, looking down at his phone to double-check that he was at the right address when the door opened and quickly shoved the device in his pocket.   
Roman answers the door and he gives the boy a quick once over, blinking when he sees the golden cross hanging from the collar of his shirt before looking back at him directly. “Uh, I don’t want whatever pamphlet it is you’re giving out so please leave.”  
Patton frowns immediately at that, honestly, a tad hurt from that. “I...I’m sorry. Is this not Remus’s place?” He swears he can see gears turning in this boy’s head after he says that. Now looking at him, he noted that he looks rather similar to Remus.  
“Oh. Oh my god! I’m so sorry! No, you’re at the right place.” He moves aside to let Patton inside. “Remus is upstairs, second door on the right.”  
Just as Roman said that Remus came clambering down the stairs, nearly tripping and falling several times on the way down. He holds onto the railing as he looks at the two by the door. “I heard my name!”  
Patton’s eyes widen a tad and he blinks. ‘Oh Lord help this house, please, please.’ He thinks to himself.   
“Ah, I see you’ve met my less attractive twin Roman.” Remus gives a shit-eating grin towards his brother.   
Roman scoffs at his twin. “Ugh, you can’t be serious.”   
Patton tries to hide the grin of amusement that spreads over his face by looking at the ground. “You, uh, you said we could work on the project yeah?”  
“Love ya bro!” Remus cackles at his brother before turning to Patton with a grin. “Yeah! Come on! My room is this way!” 

Remus leads Patton to his room, Patton follows him up the stairs and down the hall looking around at the house. He will admit he is rather surprised at how normal it looks, picture frames displaying family photos of the twins with their mom and dad, the occasional vase with slightly wilted flowers, all in all, it was just that, a home. Remus opened the door to his room and that’s when Patton saw the other boys’ personality. The walls in here were painted a bright no quite offensive green and were covered in random posters plastered haphazardly around the room. By Patton’s guess, he assumed they were the groups Remus listened to for music. The room itself was still untidy but not unpleasantly so. Patton blinked in the doorway taking this all in and almost missed Remus talking to him.   
“I brought some snacks up here so help yourself.” He says flopping back into a bean-bag on the floor, in front of which Patton now sees a little snack and working area Remus must have set up.   
“Oh! Thank you,” He says smiling as he walks in and takes a seat in the empty bean bag setting his backpack down beside him. Remus smiles, slightly amused to see the church boy trying to get comfortable in something so out of his element.  
“So what ideas do you have?” he asks, grabbing his book bag he’d thrown on the floor earlier and dragging it over to himself. Patton pulls out his Chemistry folder and notebook flipping through to find the instructions for the project as he spoke; rambling off a few ideas though he will admit that he isn’t completely familiar with the topic, that’s what research was for after all. Remus hums,  
“It’s kinda like what some bad dealers would do with drugs, rather than selling you the whole thing, they cut it with weird shit, like oregano instead of weed. That makes the real thing last longer because they only give you some, but you don’t know that. So they sell it for full-price and they make money off of it.”   
Patton blinks making a weird face as Remus continues. “So this project is about bad food dealers, cutting your spices and milk rather than the hard shit.” Remus beams, proud of himself for making the connection.   
Patton just looks at him slightly put off and Remus smacks himself mentally, he probably just scared the innocent thing in front of him with his humor. “Shit, I meant that as a joke Patton, I don’t do drugs, drugs, I mean I smoke sometimes, but it's just cigarettes and occasionally some weed with Janus, nothing too bad.” Why does he keep talking? Shut your stupid mouth, Remus, you’re making it worse.   
“N-no you’re okay Remus...you do your thing I’m not going to like try to stop you from it or anything, let’s just work on the project yeah? We can use your understanding but lets maybe avoid that you got it from drugs okay?” Patton stammers, he picks up a pretzel and nibbles on it so he doesn’t have to look up.   
“Yeah, okay, let’s do that,” Remus mumbles and pulls out his laptop to begin the research. After about ten minutes of stiff silence, Remus finds something useful and credible they can use for their project and tells Patton such. “What do you think?”  
"Cool I like that, but how would we fit it in with the requirements?" Patton asks curiously. After some explaining on Remus’ part Patton is starting to fully understand his approach, admittedly surprised at how intelligent the boy is that in front of him biting the heads off of gummy bears. "We can do that one I like your idea"  
“Sweet!” Remus grins happily, watching Patton begin to jot stuff down in his notebook. He begins reading off the webpage and adding to the notes as a sense of comfortability falls over the two of them. Alright Remus, say something, anything friendly conversation without vulgar and dark humor can’t be too hard right? He thinks to himself looking at the smaller boy diligently writing notes in front of him. Here goes nothing,  
“You doing the talent show at all?” Remus asks out of nowhere. Patton blinks looking up and shakes his head with a small smile  
"Oh, goodness no I wouldn't do anything in front of that many people"  
“Really? Why not?”  
"It’s not really my thing I get enough stage fright singing in church let alone the whole school"  
“Eh, stage fright is understandable. Once you get over it, you have a blast with so much fun stuff.” Remus grins. Patton looks at him doubtfully and changes the subject from himself.   
"Well, are you going to be in it?"  
“Oh yeah!” Remus nods with a grin. “Both Roman and I are, guess it comes with being theater kids.” He giggles. “I’m gonna be singing. Ro and his partner Thomas are gonna be doing a scene from something together.”  
"That sounds nice!" Patton smiles but at the thought of Remus singing he was getting flashbacks to the angry-headache music he heard that morning. He shakes it off and continues developing the first draft for their paper. Remus grins completely unaware of the turmoil in Patton’s head.  
“You should come see! It’s gonna be so awesome!”  
"I-I'll try" he nods "it seems like it'd be cool watching everyone"  
“It’s really fun! Everyone gets together afterward and there’s usually an after-party at my friend Janus’ place. It’s super fun. Maybe you could even come to that too.“ Remus babbles excitedly. Patton thinks, Janus oh yeah the guy Remus just mentioned to doing drugs with,  
"I-I don’t know that's not really my thing..."  
“Oh come on. It’s never wrong to live a little Patton.” He leans his head back against his bed from where his bean bag was sitting on the floor. “It’d be fun!” Patton is desperately trying to look for an excuse to politely decline, why would a guy like Remus want Patton there anyway?  
"If it’s late my parents won’t let me go."  
“Well, what do your parents consider late?”  
"If it’s not something at the school they want me home by 9:00 PM."  
“Sneak out then?” He asks with a tilt to his head. Patton’s eyes widened, looking at Remus like he just suggested taking a deep breath underwater. Absolutely not, there is no way on God’s green Earth that Patton would go against a rule his parents enforced so strictly. “What? It’s not bad.” he shrugs and Patton sputters,   
"What do you mean not bad? That’s really very bad!" Remus is mildly confused as to why Patton is reacting so panic-stricken over this, he’s only trying to be friendly.   
“Not really. So long as you don’t get caught. If you really want to I can help you sneak out. Up to you. It’s just a really fun night. You seem cool. Thought I’d invite you to the fun.” Remus explains, Patton bites his lip   
"I don't know..."  
“Come on! It’ll be a lot of fun!” Remus grins at him.  
"I'll think about it okay?" Remus shrugs not wanting to push it.  
“Well, text me and let me know.” Patton just nods continuing to wright between his flower doodles in his notebook. Remus smiles at him. “Cool, but if not it's also fine. I don’t want you to feel pressured or anything, ya know?” Patton looks up genuinely a little shocked, that’s what he thought Remus was trying to do.  
"Oh, uh, yeah, thank you," he smiles slightly  
“No problem.” Remus chuckles. “Why do you seem so shocked by that?”  
"Oh well um, it’s high school you know? Everyone is peer pressuring everyone else into something or another," he says as he tries to cover himself.

“Well, good thing I’m not one of those assholes. Peer pressuring is a dick thing to do. I try to get people to have fun, but I don’t try to shove it down their throat.”  
Patton is floored that this obviously rebellious punk is so genuine and has absolutely no idea how to respond. So naturally, he plays it smooth and obviously changes the topic back to their assignment. Patton has the first draft most of the way done by the time they deem themselves finished for that evening. Remus looks at Patton with a grin proud of the work they did before checking the time.   
“Ro and I were planning on ordering pizza. You wanna stay for that or you need to head home?” he asks when they finish. Patton jumps remembering he hadn’t texted his parents yet.  
"Oh! Um let me..let me call and ask first" he excuses himself to the hallway before calling his mom. She answers on the second ring sounding slightly worried.   
“Patton honey, are you okay? You never texted me.”  
"I’m fine mom, sorry I forgot to call. I showed up and then we got right to work, so we’ve gotten a lot done. My partner is actually really nice and helpful."  
“Oh, well, that’s good. I’m glad. How is your project coming along?”  
"Great! We have most of the first draft done already, but uh, I was invited to stay for dinner is that okay?"  
“That’s okay. Do you know when you’ll be coming home?”  
"Probably a little after dinner?"  
“Okay, that’s fine. Just don’t be too late.”  
"Yes ma'am thank you"  
“Alright. I’ll see you later.” She says before hanging up. Patton returns to the bedroom with a small smile on his face.   
“It’s alright, she says I can stay,” he explains. Remus grins.  
“Great, I’ll have Roman order, do you have any dietary restrictions?” he asks. He made a habit out of doing so, having a best friend who’s allergic to most anything edible tends to make one care about what guests eat. Patton seems hesitant to say anything but looks up seeing Remus arch a brow at him.  
“I’m vegetarian.” He mumbles shyly expecting to be judged or ridiculed for his eating habits.   
“Oh okay. So just no meat then, right?” Remus wants to make sure he’s getting it right. Patton nods blushing slightly out of embarrassment.  
“If it’s not too much trouble, but I can always pick it off, it’s not that big of a deal..”  
“No! It’s fine! Don’t even worry about it.” Remus smiles at him. “We always get two pies anyway. Me and our mom eat ours with sausage and pepperoni while Ro and our dad eat it plain.”  
“Oh,” He smiles “Okay, thank you, Remus, that’s perfect.”  
“Heh, no problem at all.” He smiles as well.“I’m sure Roman’s already ordered. You wanna hang out in here or watch some tv downstairs?” Patton shrugs indifferently to the offer,  
"It’s up to you, I don’t have a TV at home." Remus blinks, how the fuck could someone not have a TV?  
“Wait seriously?” Patton just nods as if it were normal and that he didn’t just completely blow Remus’ mind.  
"It’s not a religious thing we just...never got one? Mom and dad read a lot so that what I did"  
“Huh. Well, then you wouldn’t know any tv shows if we went downstairs... What kind of music you listen to?” Patton blushes some knowing his answer only puts him further into the ‘good-Christian-kid’ box.   
"Whatever’s on the radio, or the church stuff." Remus hums considering something before he gets up and digs through his massive collection of CDs sprawled across his desk. He takes out a Skillet CD and shows it to Patton.   
“You might like them. They’re a Christian rock band.” Patton skims over the cover with s skeptical look and reads the song titles. He looks up at Remus with a slightly questioning gaze.  
"They look cool...different, but cool. So, which song do you like best?"  
“Well, this is their newest album. I like their one song ‘You Ain’t Ready’ the best. ‘Victorious’ and ‘Save Me’ are also really good.” Remus tells him pointing to the tracklist. Patton smiles slightly, "I guess I'd be willing to listen, are they loud like the stuff you had in the car this morning when you brother almost ran me over?" Patton tries to tease.   
Remus blushes slightly at that. “That was you? Well, they’re not as heavy as breaking benjamin, which is who that was, but some of their songs like in the past have gotten close to that. And sorry about that.”   
Patton shakes his head "It's all good."

Remus, still blushing some, sets up his stereo system and puts the CD in, turning the volume down some so it wasn’t blasting like usual. Patton smiles seeing him do that for him, giggling softly. Remus smiles excitedly as the first song starts to play. It's definitely not what Patton is used to but he listens curiously, only jumping slightly when the guitar comes in he blushes slightly embarrassed that the music startled him. Remus giggles at that and starts singing along when the vocals start. Patton smiles widens hearing Remus sing, genuinely surprised by how well he could actually sing. You wouldn’t think he could sing the way he does, his speaking voice sounding drastically different than the one he uses to sing. Remus grins as he continues to sing, dancing around his room some, Patton laughs watching him clapping softly at his little show, cause it looks like Remus is having fun.  
Remus laughs and grabs Patton, pulling him in to dance with him. Patton squeaks as he's pulled in and looks up with wide eyes unsure of what to do. Remus giggles some more and shows him how to dance. Patton attempts to do as he's shown, following along with Remus’ steps. He begins laughing slightly at how silly he feels but it's not a bad feeling so he just keeps going trying to have fun. Remus smirks playfully down at the smaller boy and twirls him around so he’s back to face him again. Patton squeaks softly and almost stumbles into Remus looking up embarrassed, not having expected that; he smiles some trying to cover it up despite the tips of his ears turning red. A tad bit of blush rises on Remus’ cheeks seeing that cute smile. The smaller boy just giggles some seeing the blush glad he wasn't the only one embarrassed, the actual reason for the tension in the room going over his head.   
A moment later their little dance party is cut short as Roman calls to the pair upstairs that dinner had arrived and was ready. Remus’s attention is drawn to the doorway, hearing his brother before turning back to face Patton with a smile. “Ya hungry?”  
Patton giggles, a bit of blush remaining on his face. “Starving.”  
Remus giggles along with him and the two head downstairs to take their seats at the table where plates were waiting to be filled with food. He grabs his plate and walks over to the counter where the food was waiting to be taken and eaten. He slaps two big slices topped high with meat, a ‘That’s what she said’ skimming over his mind as the thought came, before sitting at the table. Patton follows in suit, taking his own slices of plain, and takes his seat beside Remus at the table. Roman comes in a moment later to do the same, then their mom and dad who not too long ago arrived home from work. Soon the whole Alaric family plus Patton is sitting at the table. The whole family is about to start chowing down on their pizza but pause when they notice Patton’s head bowed with his hands folded, mumbling a small prayer to himself before lifting his head and looking at them with a small awkward smile. 

Mrs. Alaric smiles politely at their guest to make him feel less uncomfortable. “Alright, everyone. Dig in.” 

Dinner goes on as it normally does after that with everyone making small talk about their day and joking around. A few rather vulgar jokes get tossed about by Remus and their parents. Roman rolls his eyes but does chime in every so often with a joke of his own. Patton chimes in occasionally when asked something or to throw in a corny dad pun that earns a round of laughter and giggles from everyone at the table.   
Patton’s smile never leaves his face the rest of the dinner. He soaks in all the warmth and vibrancy Remus’s family has during dinner time as opposed to his own where there is very little to no conversation made and if there is, nothing even close to what came out of anyone’s’ mouths tonight. After everyone finishes they all begin cleaning up. Patton goes to help and is quickly told by Roman he’s a guest and doesn’t have to do a thing. Remus smiles at the blushing boy and cleans up with Roman. He turns to Patton when they’re done.   
“You need a ride home or you gonna walk?”  
"Oh, I can walk I'll be fine. Thank you though Remus," he smiles pulling on his cardigan. "Lemme just grab my things from your room." Remus nods and watches as Patton walks back upstairs. Grabbing his things and putting them in his bag, he takes one more look around Remus’ room before returning downstairs.  
“I’ll walk you home since its dark out,” Remus said sliding on his own jacket.  
"O-oh you don’t have to do that I’m okay do go out of your way." Patton tries to protest.  
“Nah. It’s fine.” Remus smiles. Patton nods and smiles grateful for the company, he wouldn’t admit it out loud but he was a tad nervous about walking in the dark alone. He shoots his mom a text before they leave:'on my way home'  
“I’ll be back!” Remus says opening the door and walking out. Roman and the Alaric parents wave to them as they head out.   
“Thank you for having me over!” Patton says gratefully as he waves back.  
“Anytime sweetheart! It was nice meeting you!” Mrs. Alaric calls after him. Patton blushes and thanks her before turning around, he starts walking toward his house, Remus in tow, smiling softly to himself. Remus walks beside Patton, as they walk he starts humming one of the songs he showed Patton before. Patton smiles looking up at Remus occasionally he did rather like the song. Remus smiles down at Patton seeing him looking as he continues to hum along. Patton blushes when he gets caught staring and looks back at his shoes out of embarrassment. Remus giggles and blushes a little. Patton was rather adorable like this. Patton doesn’t really need to pay attention to where he’s going, feet carry him like memory towards his home. Remus, however, takes in his surroundings so he knows how he is getting home. Abruptly Patton gasps running off the road to a nearby section of forest. When he finds a familiar tree he runs up to it looking up trying to find the bird's nest and see if anyone has hatched yet, despite how unlikely that would be. Amused and vaguely confused, Remus walks over to see what Patton is trying to find.   
“What ya looking for?”  
"Remember the birds you asked about before? There is a nest up there somewhere and I’m trying to see if the eggs hatched yet but I don’t think they did.." he tells him, standing on his tiptoes trying to find the nest in the dark. Remus looks around and finds the nest, he climbs up the tree slightly so he can see inside. He smiles down at the other after looking in.   
“Eggs are still there.”  
"That’s good! Like I said before, it’s not typically a time for nesting so I’m super worried for them." he smiles blushing slightly. Remus smiles, Cute, he thinks before climbing back down to Pat.   
“They look good so it doesn’t look like there’s much to worry about right now.” He reassures, and Patton nods.  
"Thanks, Remus.." He smiles and the two continue walking Patton back home. Soon they get to his house, and Patton looks up at the door. "Well, um, this is it." Remus looks at Patton and rubs the back of his neck sheepishly.  
“Looks like it. You, uh, wanna do this again tomorrow?”  
"Sure! Maybe you can come over my place though that way we can trade off who has the snacks." he smiles looking hopeful.   
“Sure, it’ll be fun.” He agrees, making Patton grin, "Awesome!” he looks up at the dark sky. “Oh um please text me so I know you got back home safe? Please?"  
“Yeah! Of course!” Remus grins, finding it sweet he cares. “I’ll see you tomorrow Pat.”  
"See ya!" he waves before going inside letting out a small breath. Remus waves before walking away. He pulls out a pack of cigarettes and lights one as he walks, sticking the pack and lighter back in his pocket. Patton calls to his parents that he's back before going up to his room because oh boy does he have a lot to sort through. He sits on his bed, racking his brain, trying to figure out what’s going on because Remus is literally everything he’s been raised to dislike. He dresses poorly, has piercings, Patton swears he saw a tattoo, and he definitely doesn’t go to church. And yet he's being nice, a gentleman, and even helped him check on his birds. He sighs and gets ready for bed, bowing his head to pray once he’s dressed in his nightclothes, surly the almighty would have answers for him.  
Remus hums as he walks himself home, he sits on the porch when he gets there and finishes off his cigarette. He looks up at the sky trying to gather his thoughts before smushing the bud and heading inside. Roman smiles from his place on the couch looking up from his phone, their parents having already headed to their room.  
"Welcome back bro. Your friend okay?"  
“Yup!” Remus grins, flopping across Roman’s lap on the couch. He waits for Roman to finish his text and put his phone away before looking up at him with an odd look. “Bro...I think I might be getting it bad.”  
"Oh? What do you mean?” He asks, putting his phone away. Remus sighs and starts talking,  
“Patton’s just like a literal angel. I don’t even know how else to describe it. He’s just...aaaa!” Remus grins and covers his face. “He’s the most adorable and sweet boy I’ve ever met. I got him to like Skillet and we were dancing and singing to it before. He was so fucking cute!” Roman blinks.  
".....your falling for the Bible kid?" He asks in disbelief.  
“I know! Go figure that! I’m probably everything his family hates!” He blinks when the realization hits him. “Fuck! He wants me to go over to his house tomorrow for our project!”  
"Your first impression will be better than mine" He mumbles under his breath and shakes his head. "Well don’t worry you’re not a bad guy or anything." Remus gives him a look more focused on his first statement.  
“Why? What happened with your first impression?”  
"I thought he was a Mormon or something and when he knocked on the door I told him to leave and that I didn’t want his pamphlet..."  
“You did not.” Remus grins at Roman. Roman covers his face and groans dramatically.   
"I did and I felt like shit when he said he was your partner." Remus laughs at that and is promptly nudged off his lap in protest. "Oh shut up! At least I’m not head over heels for the guy. How long have you even known him anyway?"  
“He’s been in a couple of my classes before but this is the first time I’ve actually talked to him.”  
"Oh, my gods Ree."  
“What?!”  
"You do have it bad, you’re in some shit man."  
“Aaaaaa!” He covers his face, causing his brother to chuckle at his distress,   
"What are you gonna do?"  
“I don’t know!” He uncovers his face and looks over at his twin. “Ro what do I do? You’re better with the romance thing.” His brother’s eyes widen slightly.  
"Um? Get to know him? Woo him over? Don't be a dick? I heard you two laughing upstairs he seems to enjoy your company plenty..."  
“He’s so fucking cute Ro!”  
"I mean he seems sweet.." Roman tries a smile, he doesn’t want to get his brothers hopes up, Patton is almost certainly straight, and he honestly doesn’t see what Remus sees in him.  
“He really is. We stopped to check on a bird’s nest on our way to his house.”  
"Oh?"  
“He’s really worried about them because it’s not the usual time for nests.” Roman gives him a sympathetic look.  
"Oh my gods you have interacted with him for less than 24 hours and you’re already whipped."  
“Shut up!” Roman rolls his eyes at that and stands up to stretch his back, wanting to go to bed himself.   
"Well Re what are you gonna do? You're going over his place tomorrow."  
“I don’t know!” Roman chuckles at his brothers’ distress.  
“I think I’m going to head to bed now.” Remus whines at that. "Oh come on. You've had no problems winning over guys before"  
“Those were one night stands, this is different. I don’t want it to just be a one-night thing. I really want to actually get to get to know him more.” Roman sighs realizing how serious Remus is being.   
"Then you're doing exactly what you should be doing Re." The punk smiles at his brother, but the moment of affectionate brotherly bonding is broken as Remus’ phone chimes. Looking down he sees that Patton sent him a text: ‘It’s Been a little bit are you safe?’  
“Shit!” His eyes widen realizing he forgot to do the one thing Patton asked. ‘Yeah I got home safe. Got caught up talking with Roman. Sorry.’  
A few seconds later he gets a response: 'It’s okay just glad to know you're safe :)'  
Roman gives him a look wanting an explanation for the sudden outburst. Remus blushes, “Patton wanted me to text him when I got home safe and I forgot.”He tells him while still texting the other boy. ‘:) I’ll see you tomorrow at school’  
‘See ya'  
Remus grins at his phone. “He’s so fucking cute Roman.”  
"Oh my gods, What did he do now?" Roman asks, teasing smile on his face. His brother just shrugs, giggling a little.   
“I just can’t get that smile of his out of my head.”  
"What class do you have him in?"  
“I have chemistry and gym with him tomorrow.”  
"No perving on him in the lockerroom" he teases wiggling his eyebrows. "No, but seriously just be yourself and talk with him, I’m going to bed now" Remus laughs and hits him playfully for the comment.  
“Alright.” He smiles and heads up to his room to get ready for bed. After a few minuted of very gay thought about a certain bible boy, Remus gets up and decides to go get ready for bed, himself. He undresses and shuts his door before climbing into bed, proceeding to jerk off before finally turning over to get some rest. Just be yourself, Remus, just like Roman said… He thinks to himself before drifting off to sleep, snoring loud enough to frighten any monsters that would dare try to sleep under his bed.


	4. Chapter 3

Patton is exhausted, he makes his way out of his shower and glares at his clock telling him that he’s on time. He sighs, it feels like it’s still far too early in the morning to be awake. His mind is reeling slightly, so much has happened but it's only Tuesday, meaning he still had a full week left of school, and time to spend with Remus as they worked on their project. Remus, he was quite a confusing person, and he still had yet to have his prayers answered, maybe today the lord would share some light on what's going on. He clasps his necklace around himself before beginning to dress. Coming downstairs a few moments later to thank his mom for breakfast, a big fluffy omelet, she must have woken up early to make something like this.  
“You’re welcome dear, how’s your project going?” She asks, setting his food and a glass of orange juice on the table in front of him. He mumbles a small prayer before responding.  
“Really well. We got a lot done, were going to work on it again today,” He says digging in. “I invited him over if that's okay.”  
Mrs. Hart nods and sets off to begin making breakfast for the rest of the family. Shortly Patton finishes his, and after washing up his dishes is out the door excited to check up on his birds once again. With one last call of farewell, he’s out the door eagerly walking towards the school. He hums hymns to himself that he’ll have to perform this upcoming Sunday as he walks. He looks at his phone typing in the search bar before continuing to walk with new excited vigor. According to a google search of the incubation time for common birds in the area, the eggs will hatch any day now, making him eager to check on the nest.  
At the Alaric household, Roman is pouting as he’s convinced to drive to school yet again. Remus gleefully climbs into the passenger seat, pop tart hanging out of his mouth, dropping crumbs all over the seat, as he tries to find music for the drive. His older brother, (only by 11 minutes!) rolls his eyes as a Skillet song, much too heavy for 6 in the morning blast through the car speakers. Munching on his pop tart Remus kicks his docs up onto the dash, Roman quickly tries to swat his legs down before giving up and making the drive towards the school. Maybe halfway into the drive Remus sits up and shouts through the last bite of his breakfast,  
“Roman! Stop!” He screeches to a stop much to the dismay of the cars behind them, horns are blaring at the sudden stop.  
“What the hell Remus?!” He yelps looking around to see what child he may have just run over and comes up with nothing. Remus blushes sheepishly causing his brother to glare at him.  
“I saw Patton, I wanted you to pull over..” Roman groans and pulls off to the side, wincing at the obscene gestures the cars that pass them give him. Remus jumps out with a grin on his face walking over to the boy.  
“Hey, Patton!” Remus calls walking over crossing the road nonchalantly as if he and his brother didn’t just almost cause a 3 car pile up. Startled Patton shakes himself before smiling at his friend.  
“Hi there Remus...”  
“Sorry ‘bout the noise, you checking on the birds?” Patton nods turning back to the tree, straining on his toes as he looks up.  
"It’s okay, no one got hurt, but yeah I am, I think I see movement but I’m not sure..." Remus looks up and hums before decidedly grabbing a branch and beginning to climb up the tree once again. Easily able to peek into the nest and check on the inhabitants of the nest as Patton bounces excitedly below him. Remus grins seeing tiny wriggling raw chickens.  
“Patton… there are baby birds.” Remus chuckles as Patton squeaks and jumps excitedly  
"Oh my goodness! They hatched!!"  
“All four hatched!” Remus confirms as he grins down at him. He looks back up just in time to see a very angry mama bird coming back. Patton is dancing around excited too lost in the wonders of mother nature to realize what’s about to happen.  
“Uh oh...” Remus’ eyes widen as the mama bird swoops towards him and tries to attack him, defending her babies.  
“Shit shit shit-ah!” He waves his hands trying to defend against the clawing and pecking, being thrown off balance he ends up falling out of the tree, shoulder slamming into a branch on the way down. Patton yelps and rushes over panicked  
"Remus! Are you okay!?!" He asks worriedly, checking him over trying to see how hurt he is, hands fluttering over him afraid to make any injuries worse. Remus sits up, trying to hide a wince not wanting Patton to worry.  
“I’m okay, I’m okay...I think.” Patton frowns looking him over, seeing cuts all over his arms from self-defense.  
"She scratched you pretty bad Remus...plus the fall out of the tree didn’t look easy. Where does it hurt?" He asks voice soft and kind. Remus blushes slightly and admits that he hit his left shoulder on the way down before landing on it again. Blush dusting his cheeks, Patton asks if he can look at the damage, wanting to see just how bad the injury was and if he’d need to see a doctor. With permission, he carefully lifts his shirt and winces sympathetically seeing dark bruising "Well your not cut but its bruise really bad...I’m sorry Remus"  
“It's fine Patton.” Remus smiles at him. He tries to rub his shoulder and winces immediately when he touches it. “Not your fault.” The smaller boy still frowns catching the pain on his face.  
"Well, the good thing is it doesn’t seem dislocated..."  
“Hurts like hell though.” Remus grits his teeth and lets Patton help him up.  
"Let me help you back to the car.." Remus smiles and nods.  
“Thanks, Pat.” The boys stiffly make their way to the car, Roman has been scrolling through Instagram blinks looking up at Patton supporting his brother.  
"What the fuck did you do this time, Remus?" He scolds jumping out of the car to help Patton get him in the seat.  
"I was viciously attacked by a bird and fell out of a tree." Roman snorts and shakes his head.  
"Only you. Are you okay? You need an ER visit?"  
"He was bruised badly and says it hurts to move" Patton explains worriedly.  
“Eh, I’ll be fine. Just a little black and blue. It ain’t gonna kill me." Remus gets in the car. "Patton, why don't you hitch a ride with us?"  
"Oh, are you sure?" He asks wringing his hands not wanting to put them even more out of their way.  
“Yeah. Hop in.” Remus smiles, as Patton nods and climbs in the back. Roman closes the doors for them before getting back in the front Patton buckles up and smiles  
"Thank yous."  
"No problem." Roman smiles  
“Yeah, no problem. Anything for friends.” Remus adds, smiling. He leans forward and turns in some music they can all listen to. Patton makes a curious face at the new music, it was just the radio full of common popular songs most kids their age would know, not something he imagined Remus enjoying. Despite this Remus sings along with Roman to an Adel song Patton is familiar with. He hums softly in the back seat enjoying the twins’ voices and the little show they were putting on with the dramatics they sang. Roman was obviously showing off as much as he could while still driving safely, a performer at heart. Patton giggles slightly watching the antics, but regrets it slightly when the attention is brought back to him. Roman glances in the mirror at Patton.  
"Why don’t you sing Patton?"  
“Yeah, why don’t you?” Remus adds, Patton bushes under the scrutiny  
"I don’t sing that much outside of church.."  
“Really?” Remus asks surprised, Patton simply nods "Guess I might actually come to church so I can hear you sing." Patton laughs at the joke, the idea of the punk boy even setting foot in his church is extremely comical.  
"I'll do it, Pat. Don't think I won't." Remus grins at the challenge Roman gives Remus a look,  
"I’d like to see you try to enter a church."  
Patton shrugs still giggling slightly "They wouldn’t let you in dressed like that." Remus laughs at the thought.  
"They'd probably try to drown me in holy water."  
Patton giggles "That’s called a baptism." Remus chuckles then he looks at Roman.  
“We did that, didn’t we? Right? Or am I dumb?” Roman shrugs thinking about it,  
“Probably? Mom and Dad would know." Remus just nods as Roman pulls into the school. Remus gets out when they park and slings his book bag over his good shoulder. Patton and Roman get their stuff and get out as well before following Remus into the school. They receive a few weird looks from other students, but everyone is too tired and they simply ignore it. Roman waves to them before leaving to go to his class. The others wave and Pat follows after Remus as he heads to his locker to grab his stuff.  
“Let me help you. The textbooks can’t be good for your shoulder.” He offers already grabbing Remus’ extra books.  
“You sure Pat? I don’t wanna be a bother...”  
"No bother! Plus you got hurt helping me. It’s the least I can do." He says waving him off.  
“Alright.” He smiles hoping he’s not blushing too much. “Thanks, Pat.”  
"Anytime!" He giggles "Off to Mr. Freemans!"  
“Woo!” Remus grins and walks with Patton as he carries both of their things into class. He sets Remus’ things down for him before going to his own desk beside him. They smile at each other, but quickly begin to pay attention as the chemistry class starts. Patton is attentively taking extra good notes to share with Remus later so he wouldn’t have to hurt his arm. Not wanting to be a burden, Remus at least tries to take some notes. Patton sees this and sends him a small smile.  
"Don’t worry about it Remus I got it," Patton whispers as to not draw attention to himself.  
“Thanks, Patton,” Remus mumbles back. He nods and just continues taking notes, doodling his signature little flowers around some important topics. After the introduction and explanation of the lab they were going to do today Remus turns to Patton as they were pretty much lab partners, at least until the report was finished. He makes a face seeing all the equipment they needed to use that would require a steady hand. As if reading his mind Patton ends him a reassuring look.  
"Don't worry Re. You can just tell me how to do it," he says getting up to get the stuff they'd need for the experiment. Remus blinks but nods.  
“Okay.” He watches as Patton gets up to gather everything together and set it all up, He wants to make sure Remus can relax, still feeling bad about how he hurt himself. He turns to his partner once it was all ready.  
“Okay so I may have gotten distracted doodling flowers and am a little lost as to what we’re supposed to be doing…” he admits. Remus smiles a little fondly at him and explains to him what they are doing. He nods trying to follow the instructions, thankful when Remus helps out with what Patton is having trouble with. Soon the experiment is complete and all that’s left is to wait to see if they did it right. Patton bounces on his toes as he watches hoping for.the reaction they were supposed to get. Remus grins proudly when they get that reaction. Patton claps excitedly watching  
"You’re the best, Re!" he cheers  
“I try.” Remus grins and blushes a tad at Pattons’ happy giggling. Patton calls Mr. Freeman over so they can get graded for the day.  
Mr. Freeman walks over and grades their experiment, smiling at the two of them. Proud that they are able to follow instructions, which is rare for high school students. Patton thanks him and Mr. Freeman smiles and nods before heading over to another table still struggling. Patton starts to clean up, proud that they were the first ones done, and eager to use the free time to copy over his notes for Remus. He insists on helping at least somewhat, so Patton makes sure he doesn’t hurt his arm. When they are done Remus heads back to his seat Patton follows and starts re-copying the notes for Remus to take home with him.  
“Patton, you are literally the best.”  
"Hmm?" He asks while writing  
“The notes and everything. You’re literally the best,” he explains  
"Oh! It's no problem!" He smiles as he doodles flowers on Remus's copy next to the important parts, causing Remus to smile. When Patton finishes writing he hands Remus the notes.  
“I think I got everything down.”  
“Thanks.” Remus takes them.  
"Yepperdoodles!" He giggles and Remus can’t help but grin at that. Soon the bell rings signifying the end of class.  
Patton gathers up his stuff and quickly helps Remus do the same.  
“Thanks, Patton.” Remus is finding himself saying that a lot lately.  
"No problem Re, I mean it, where are we headed now?"  
“Math.” he pouts. Patton nods sympathetically and walks with him down to the math hall of the building. Remus walks beside him smiling to himself as he hears Patton hum to himself softly. The pleasantness is short-lived as Remus winces when his shoulder gets bumped into as they walk. Patton frowns at those who bumped him, his usually kind eyes contemplating saying something but decides against it not wanting to cause a scene. Remus stops when they get to his class.  
“Thanks for carrying my stuff, Patton.  
"Of course! I’ll be back to help you after" Patton smiles like it was an honor to help him out rather than a hindrance that was definitely going to make him late to class, probably for the first time in his life.  
“Oh thanks, Patton.” Remus blinks but recovers and smiles at him. Patton nods not at all bothered by his friends reduced vocabulary.  
"Have fun at math!" He calls before going off to his own class. Remus watches him leave before remembering to move, he heads into class and does his best to get himself situated. The class goes by fairly quickly thanks to much of Remus’ daydreaming. He looks at the clock and blinks realizing the period is almost up and soon they would have gym.  
Patton had left his class a little early to come find Remus again, to help him carry his things. The teacher was delighted that Patton was helping an injured student and easily let him pack up early. Remus looks at Patton when he gets there confused about how he feels, this was a lot of kindness he wasn’t used to. He lets him take his stuff without any argument. Thankfully his thoughts save him from thanking the boy for the millionth time today. Patton just smiles and walks with him to the gym. Remus smiles and pulls his head out of his thoughts so he can chat with Patton as they walk. Patton leaves Remus’s stuff by his gym locker before apologizing and scurrying over to his corner of the changing room. Remus does his best to get changed. He still finds it odd that Patton hides himself the way he does, but he brushes it off as some prude religious thing. He sighs already feeling the looks from other students, his bruise is on full display with his gym shirt on. Patton comes back out just in time to stop the question from the others but frowns seeing how dark it got.  
"Oh, Remus.." Remus looks at it. Huh, that must be why it hurt so bad, his whole shoulder was a galaxy of black blues and purples.  
“It’s not that bad.” Patton frowns deeper, not convinced in the slightest. Remus, not wanting him to worry, lifts his arm a little and does his best to hide the wince. “See? Barely feel it..”  
"You’re absolutely awful at lying..."  
“I’m usually better...” He admits and Patton looks sad  
"You’re not supposed to be, come on we're taking gym slow today" He scolds, much like a caring parent.  
“Fine..” He pouts, not sure why he feels bad now. He decided to distract himself the best way he knows how, by making a show of himself. He finds he doesn’t have to as the teachers are giving him weird looks because of the bruise. He pouts slightly, the attention is no fun unless he causes it himself, so he decides not to acknowledge it unless asked.  
Remus didn’t have to wait long, Warren Smith was the dumbest of the highschool gym teachers there ever was. No one knew how he actually passed any exams to become a teacher, yet here he was in all his whistle-blowing, annoying, nosey glory. He walks around like he was the coolest guy in the school, despite being in his 30s, he had the maturity and judgment call of a middle schooler. Which is why it wasn’t too surprising when he swaggered over to Remus to ask about the bruising in the most subtle way possible.  
"Hey kid, what happened back there?" He asks, nodding his head to his shoulder. Remus grins as he looks him dead in the eyes. Warren’s stupidity made him the best teacher to fuck with.  
“My mom beat me with the handle of a knife,” He says, sounding dead serious. Warren blinks unsure how to process that.  
"Excuse me?"  
"Remus!" Patton shrieks indignantly baffled that something like that would come out of his mouth, about his very kind mother no less. Remus just laughs at their reactions. Warren, realizing in a brief, rare moment of clarity that he wasn’t going to win with Remus, rolls his eyes and walks away. Remus grins at Patton, rather proud of himself. Patton just shakes his head adoringly, happily Remus giggles at that. Feeling especially brave, Patton sticks his tongue out, only to be met by Remus sticking his tongue back out at him. Patton goes to say something but jumps as the whistle is blown for attendance.  
Both Boys head to their spot and begin warm-ups, well Patton does, Remus just sits there not wanting to get yelled at by Patton for straining himself. When warmups end Remus gets up off the floor, joined by Patton jogging over a few minutes later. Remus smiles at him, Patton smiles back  
"How are you feeling?"  
“Okay. Hurts to move it in any way, but good other than that.” He says casually, Patton purses his lips.  
"I’m still really sorry about that.."  
“It’s fine. Not your fault.” Patton shrugs unconvinced but drops it, for now, walking the laps with him. Remus walks beside him listening as Patton hums under his breath. Patton doesn’t realize he's humming, so Remus doesn’t say anything and just continues to listen. Soon he starts humming a new song and Remus hums along, knowing the song. Patton turns red realizing he's been caught and stops his humming. Remus looks at him curiously.  
“You good?”  
"What? Yeah, why?" Smooth Patton, really smooth. Remus just shrugs.  
“Just asking.” He smiles. Patton boops his nose attempting a distraction. Remus goes cross-eyed at that causing Patton to giggle. He simply grins and boops Patton’s nose. Patton scrunches his face and sneezes softly,  
“Aww! That’s too cute!” Remus grins. “It’s like when you poke a cats nose and it sneezes after!” Patton blushes his ears even turning red. Remus giggles as he grins and Patton honestly isn't sure how to respond. Remus notices his silence and hesitates.  
“Did I make it awkward?” Patton shakes his head.  
"I just don't know what to say? I'm confused my chest is light"  
"Something positive? That means you like it.” Patton shrugs thinking for a moment and nods slightly Remus puts his good arm around him in a friendly manner. “Nothing wrong with that! Besides, who doesn’t like cats?” Patton grins and nods.  
"Cats are great"  
“Favorite kind of cat?”  
"Hmm?"  
“What's your favorite kind of cat?” Remus clarifies  
"Oh! Maincoon! The big fluffs!" Patton cheers  
“Ooo! Yes! My favorite is the werewolf cat.”  
"What's that?" Remus grins as he pulls up a picture on his phone. The cat has thin grey fur looking very much like a stereotypical werewolf.  
Patton gasps "Oh I love him!!"  
Remus grins. “They’re so cute! If I could get one I'd name him Lycan.”  
"That's the scientific word for wolf right?"  
“Close. Werewolf.”  
Patton nods "That’s cool!" Remus nods in agreement with a grin. Patton looks up at the teachers seeing them planning today's activity. He sighs sitting down as they wait for instructions as to what game is in store.They set up kickball and Remus lets out an annoyed sigh. “I’m so done with kickball already.” He mutters as he sits down beside Patton, careful not to jostle his arm.  
"I mean it's better than Speedball, and besides you should be resting anyway." Remus chooses to ignore the last comment knowing without a note he was going to have to participate anyway.  
“This game sucks ass. I hope I kick the ball right into Coach Smith’s face when he has that stupid whistle in his mouth.” Patton giggles slightly but tries to hide it with a serious glare. Remus giggles seeing right through him.  
A few girls spy Remus, most of them Juniors and Sophomores, they come over giggling happily and start chatting with him, thankfully not about his bruise. Remus grins at the girls and happily talks with them. He introduces Patton to them and tells them how nice he is. Patton blushes at the compliment and waves to them saying hello. The girls smile and wave politely before talking to Remus again. Remus happily talks with them, ignoring the ongoing game for the time being.  
Smith blows his whistle at them for not participating, and Patton can immediately see his demeanor change.  
“I’m gonna do it. It might be an accident, but I’m gonna do it.” Remus mutters as he gets up to go to the plate. Despite Patton's protest to take the zero cause his health was more important. Remus ignores him, only feeling slightly bad. He gets a couple of joking whistles from some of the boys and he winks at them before actually kicking the ball that is pitched to him. Patton blushes darkly watching Remus, telling himself he's doing it cause he's worried. When that sounds a little too much like he's lying to himself he then keeps his eyes on the ball watching it go. The calls are always rigged cause Smith wants his team to win so the ball was deemed a foul so he has to redo it.  
The ball is pitched to Remus again and he kicks it. This time it actually hits Warren right in the face like had said before, making the whole gym bust out laughing. That's what he gets for standing right in the middle of the game, forcing the injured kid to play.Patton is laughing holding his side giving Remus a thumbs up. Remus grins over at Patton and laughs as he quickly runs to first base biting back a wince. Remus’ favorite teacher, Coach White, walks up to him with a serious look on her face. Remus looks at her concerned. She smirks and high fives his uninjured side, Remus laughs and high fives her back.  
“Sit out the rest of the day, I’ll make sure Smith leaves you alone.” She says Remus nods and thanks her. Patton grins from where he's watching. Remus waits for his next chance to run. Which unlucky for him wouldn't be for a while. A few turns later Patton is forced to take his turn. He goes up kicking the ball...directly into someone's hands. Remus gives him a thumbs up in a ‘you did your best’ way. Patton shrugs and goes back to sitting, and Remus runs with the next kick is good. He manages to get back to home base, finally, he was allowed to sit and let his arm rest. He grins and comes back over to sit next to Patton who smiles at him  
"Nice job, you sure you're okay?" Remus giggles and nods. Patton has come to find that he likes that sound. Not wanting to think of what that means he leans against the bleachers. "I hate this class I just wanna go home”  
“Yeah me too.” Remus agrees, Patton is staring at the clock willing it to go faster. Remus chuckles, noticing what he’s doing, and Patton smiles at him.  
"Is it working?"  
“I think it might be actually.” Remus chuckles. Patton jumps when a foul ball flies backward somehow and nearly hits his face. He blinks a few times looking at the ball and back at the kid who kicked it, who was promptly smirking. Remus glares over the guy who kicked the ball.  
“Hey! Watch it!” Patton pales some as the kid flips Remus off, in turn, Remus is about ready to get up and punch the kid. Patton puts a hand on his knee,  
"It was an accident Remus, let it go." It most definitely wasn't an accident but he was injured which would not allow him to fight properly. Coming to that conclusion Remus huffs and relaxes back against the bleachers. Patton smiles in what he hopes is a reassuring manner. He feels an odd urge to hug Remus; he blinks and refrains. What was he thinking, just because Remus would stand up for him is no excuse. You don't show another man affection like that.  
Unknowing of Patton's internal dilemma Remus grins as the bell rings and gets up to go into the locker room. Patton does too, meeting back up with Remus once the both of them have changed back into everyday clothes. Remus shoots Roman a quick text letting him know he doesn’t need a ride. He’ll be walking home with Patton. Roman sends him a series of winking, eggplant and water drop emojis, Remus rolls his eyes at his brother. ‘Oh shut it!’  
'You love me'  
‘Shut up and I do’  
Remus smiles and sticks his phone in his pocket. Patton smiles looking up at Remus "Ready?"  
“Yup!” Remus nods with a smile and Patton walks with him out of the school. Remus talks with him as they walk about the project and what they can work on today. Patton is listening and nodding along, adding his own points here and there. When they pass it he glances at his tree but doesn't want to bother Remus with the nest after already being injured and goes to keep walking. Remus walks over to the tree himself to check on the nest, curious how the babies are doing. Patton blinks but follows smiling,  
"Any changes?"  
“Nope. Looks good.”  
"Thanks Remus.."  
“No problem.” He smiles continuing with him back to his home. Just a short few minutes go by until Patton looks up at his home. Well, home sweet home.


	5. Chapter 4

Patton smiles shyly before walking up to the door. He knocks before opening it and toeing off his shoes.   
"Mom! Dad! I'm home! My lab partner Remus is with me!" He calls out knowing his parents are home. Patton’s mother comes over and internally cringes seeing Remus.   
“Hi, it's nice to meet you.” She holds out a hand and gently takes his to shake. Remus had followed in suit and untied his boots, taking them off and leaving them by the door. He shakes her hand and smiles.   
“Hi, I’m Remus.”  
His father rounds the corner and is visibly startled at what his son brought home. He quickly attempts to compose himself.   
"Pleasure to welcome you to our blessed home, Remus. I'm Mr. Hart." He holds his hand out to shake as well. Remus shakes his father’s hand.   
“Nice to meet you.” He says, his voice sounding much different than usual. This is the one he uses to please others. Patton is suddenly very uncomfortable hearing this side of Remus.  
“We’re gonna go upstairs and work on our project now!" He says, trying to break the tension. Remus smiles at them before following Patton upstairs.  
Mr. Hart looks at his wife with wide eyes. She nods with a similar expression. “Oh, dear...our poor Patton was forced to work with that?” He nods and crosses himself for protection, hoping his son can at least show this heathen some goodness. She does the same casting a worried glance upstairs.  
Patton lets Remus into his clean as can be room. Remus looks around, much unlike his own, Pat’s room is basically immaculate, peach walls, bible on his dresser, bookshelf full of books, the only way you can tell someone lived here is from the unmade bed and half-full hamper in the comer. Then his eyes are drawn to above his bed, rather than posters of bands, Patton had, in all his glory a severely emaciated looking crucified Jesus. How anyone could be comfortable with that watching you all night, Remus had no idea, but it wasn't his place to judge.   
“Wow..your room’s so...clean.”  
"Thanks? I don't really have anything I can get it messy with." Patton blushes slightly nervous.  
“No problem. Just never been in a room this clean before. It's honestly kind of impressive.” Patton giggles relaxing a bit and sits on the bed, digging his stuff out from his bag, flops the stuff on the bed eager to get back to his and Remus’ normal routine.  
"Let’s do this!" Remus nods with a grin and sits down getting his own things out from his bag. They get to work on finishing up the project. Making progress surprisingly quickly. Patton smiles making conversation, Remus smiles at that happy Patton was still his chattery self. As they start getting close to completion, Patton hums softly, too lost in the work to realize it’s the tune to one of the songs Remus showed him yesterday. Remus smiles hearing that and hums along with him keeping his voice soft, not wanting to startle Patton again. Soon they're finished and Remus grins, looking proudly at their project.   
“We did it!” Patton grins and jumps up and down.   
"We did!" He agrees. Remus holds up his good hand for a high five. Patton gives him a nice crisp high five, and Remus grins happily at him.  
“So, what do you want to do now?” Remus asks seeing that he still had some time before he was due home.  
"Um..." Pat looks around his room realizing He actually doesn't have anything fun they can do inside. "I mean, it’s still decently bright out. We can go for a walk if you want?"  
"Yeah sure," Remus smiles. "Cool."  
Patton puts away their stuff because it's a habit of his to keep a clean room. Remus joins and helps him clean up.  
He smiles in thanks, straightens up and turns to him. "Okay let's go!" Patton heads back downstairs so they can leave Remus heads downstairs with him. "Mom! Dad! Re and I are finished and are going for a walk!"  
“Alright, honey! Be careful!” His mother calls. Remus gets his shoes on as they talk. Patton slips his on as well.  
"We will!" The boys head out, both of them feeling more comfortable now out of the house. Patton smiles looking down at the cracks in the sidewalk embarrassed. He looks up at Remus after a while of walking. "I’ve been thinking about the talent show thing.."  
“What about it?”  
"If I wanted to go.” He takes a breath, “You could get me out without my parents knowing, right?" He asks nervously.  
“Your parents ever check on you at night?” Remus asks excitedly. Patton shakes his head  
“Then yeah. I can get you out.” Patton nods and makes his decision.  
"Okay, I'll go then." Remus grins.   
“Oh this is gonna be awesome!” Remus excitedly hugs Patton without thinking and Patton squeaks, his face turning bright red. Worried he crossed a boundary, he let him go with blush on his cheeks. “Sorry!”   
Patton blinks, but smiles hugging himself a bit, his face still red.  
"N-no it’s okay just wasn't expecting it...that was actually really nice"  
“R-Really?” He smiles hopefully, hoping he really meant it. Patton nods and opens his arms shyly, wanting another. Remus grins and hugs him again, and much to his delight, Patton hugs him back this time. Remus giggles happily and the smaller boy blushes and giggles. He lets go after a minute and continues to walk along with Patton. After some comfortable silence, Remus pipes up.   
“Hey, you wanna see something cool?”  
"Sure." He looks over at him as they walk. Remus takes his hand as he leads him into the woods near their houses, making sure to keep their hands linked so he doesn’t lose him. They walk for a few minutes before they come upon a little fort near a lake. Patton forgets to let go of his hand, smiling at the Fort "Oh! This is so cool!"  
“Ro and I made this years ago when we were little. We sometimes come back to hang out, but recently I’ve just been coming here to hang out. It’s just nice.” Patton nods in agreement.  
"The trees around here are beautiful. It's so relaxing and pretty." Re goes and sits to look out at the lake, leaning back against the fort.   
“I know.” He says wistfully. Patton smiles and sits next to him watching the water. Remus smiles and lets out a content sigh. They stay like that for a moment, then Patton gasps excitedly seeing the ducks on the lake; Remus giggles at Patton’s reaction. Patton blushes, but watches the ducks happily. He pulls some bagged granola from his pocket leftover from lunch and tosses some to feed the ducks. Remus grins and watches as the ducks come over. He reaches out to try and pet one of the ducks when it comes out of the water and gets close, but hesitates when he sees Patton bite his lip.  
"Careful, they can bite." He tries to warn. Remus pouts  
“But I just wanna pet it.”  
"Yeah but you could get hurt...again"  
“I mean it couldn’t hurt that bad. It's a duck.” He reaches out to pet it. Patton watches and winces watching the duck turn and bite Remus’ outstretched hand. Remus yelps and jerks his hand back, holding it to his chest. He frowns and stands gently shooing the ducks away before going over to Remus.  
"Here let me see." Remus shows him his hand, blushing embarrassed that he has gotten hurt by two birds in one day.   
“Ducks are evil.”  
"No, they were scared. I told you they bite." He scolds looking over his hand. "You're lucky it wasn't a goose or swan since they have teeth."  
“Really? That’s honestly kinda terrifying.” Patton nods smiling, handing him back his hand satisfied that none of the skin broke.  
“Thanks.” He smiles. Patton smiles back, but gives him a warning look.  
"No more petting ducks, okay?" Remus giggles.  
“Okay.” He nods and Patton rolls his eyes affectionately, He bushes slightly before he goes back to watching the ducks.  
Remus is startled slightly when Patton cups his hands and makes a duck call. He watches fascinated as the ducks seem to pay attention to Patton, who giggles and does it again. Some of the ducks come over towards Patton and throws them some granola making sure to keep them away from the taller boy. Remus watches as the ducks eat and giggles.  
"You're like a Disney princess." Patton blushes,   
"A what?"  
"Have you never seen Disney?" Patton shakes his head, no he hasn’t. Remus gasps at this treason, "Tomorrow. You. Me. My house. After school. Disney marathon."  
"O-Okay?"  
"My brother and I literally have every Disney movie imaginable. It's insane."  
"What’s it about?" Patton ask curious  
"Oh, there are so many Disney movies. All of them are different stories, mostly based on fairy tales. I think you will like Snow White or Cinderella."  
"What makes you say that?" Remus just smiles  
"Animals."  
"Animals are really cute though, especially the small fluffy ones." Patton defends, “ but my parents won’t let me have pets though, which sucks, but that’s why I love taking care of the birds and stuff outside"  
"Really?” He asks, baffled. “If you could have a pet though what would you have?" Patton thinks for a bit before answering.  
"Something small and fluffy, like a mouse!" Remus nods sagely.  
"I want pet rats, but I think Roman would kill me if I got one. Then again I've been planning on trying to get them without him knowing."  
“I thought you wanted the wolf-cat?” Remus laughs  
“The werewolf cat is like a dream, but they're expensive, and I’m not likely to get one, rats however I can get at the pet store.” Patton nods in understanding.  
“I think they’re cheaper too ‘cause not a lot of people want them. I don't understand why people don't like them. Rats are actually really nice!"  
"They are! They're sweet little things. I have no idea what I would name them though."  
"Sometimes you have to see them first you know? Then it just comes to you"  
“Yeah, you’re right.” Remus nods and checks the time on his phone. “When should we start heading back?” Patton checks his phone and frowns not wanting to leave   
"Probably soonish.." Remus nods, not wanting to leave either. They share a look at the sky, the sun was going down causing the sky to turn all sorts of colors, giving them a convenient distraction so they don't have to leave just yet.  
Remus points out shapes in the clouds, many of them bordering on violent or crude. Patton giggles and makes the shapes friendlier than Remus's ideas to tease him, and he can’t help but giggle at that. Catching on to the game he points out more ideas just to tease Patton who gasps scandalized.   
"Oh! You're bad!"  
“I could be much worse.” Remus grins, proud of that fact. Patton blinks his innocent mind unable to fathom such a thing.   
"What? No...How?"  
“Do you really wanna know?” Patton visibly hesitates but his curiosity wins out and he nods. Remus hums, ”What do you want to know? You could give me a topic and I probably have a story for it.”  
"I don’t know...um school?"  
“Letting you in on some tea that not everyone in the school knows. I have fucked and or have been fucked in every staircase in the school and from that experience I can tell you, and here's the tea, the captain of the football team is a bottom bitch.” He states proudly, Patton turns the color of a tomato and sputters not able to form words   
“I asked if you really wanted to know.” He shrugs a bit defensively. Patton swallows.   
"Remind me not to ask again, um I think we should start heading back.." Remus gets a bad feeling in his chest at Pattons’ sudden urge to leave. He gets up and extends a hand to Patton to help him up. He tentatively takes it, not wanting to hurt his shoulder anymore, but keeps his head down even after he stands and as they walk back towards his house. Remus keeps his head down and his hands in his pockets, kicking rocks along as they walk. He curses at himself mentally for his lack of filter, afraid he just lost any chance he could have possibly had with Patton thanks to his mouth and not knowing when to just shut up. It is not very long before his intrusive thoughts worm their way into his mind, making a gross feeling start to form in his chest. Patton is unaware of this and is just trying to hide his blush from his new sinful curiosity; he leads him inside before finally looking up at him.  
"Um, you want to stay for dinner? It’s kinda late...Roman might have already eaten." Remus blinks, surprised, but doesn't want to turn down this second chance. He swallows and nods.   
"Uh, sure." Remus offers an awkward smile. Patton nods and smiles back. He walks into the dining room and sees his parents setting the table so he jumps in to help. Remus takes off his shoes and leaves them at the door like earlier. Patton, in his awkward rush, had forgotten and was tracking mud on the floor.  
“Patton dear! You’re getting mud all over the floor!” His mother scolds. He looks down and blushes.   
"Oh! Sorry, mom! I'll clean it!" He quickly runs back over to where the shoes go and takes his off before starting to clean the mess he made. Remus offers to help with setting the table while Patton cleans.  
"Thank you, Remus, but you're our guest. Patton will handle it." His father explains. Remus frowns slightly, but catches himself. He smiles politely and nods. “Just thought I’d help.” He goes and washes his hands before taking a step back. He watches as Patton quickly finishes cleaning and washes his hands before setting the table. Patton pats the seat next to him once everything is set. Remus sits in the seat next to Patton as his parents plate everything for everyone. Remus thanks them when he is handed his plate, shortly after, they all sit down and bow their heads for grace. Remus blinks remembering his manners and copies them. Pleased, Patton's father says grace before they all chorus amen, Remus joining in with them.   
Patton smiles kindly at him before eating, Remus smiles as well before eating, seeing he was now allowed to do so. Patton and his family eat as usual though it's hard to miss how his parents seem to be watching Remus closely. Remus just eats his food, doing his best to not be unnerved by his parents. Patton is fidgeting quite a bit, he’s super embarrassed over his parents’ behavior towards his friend. The boys finish eating and Patton collects Remus’ plate, excusing himself to dispose of the dishes. Patton nods towards the stairs with a look at Remus.  
"Mom, Dad. Remus and I would like to be excused to go back to my room." He says, bringing the plates to the sink. Once given permission Remus stands pushing in his chair.  
“Thank you for dinner, Mr. and Mrs. Hart. It was really good.”  
"I'm glad you enjoyed Remus." Mrs. Hart nods. He smiles politely and follows Patton upstairs.   
“Your parents really don’t like me do they?” He asks once they are safe in his room. Patton slumps visibly at the question.  
"I'm really sorry. You're really nice and everything but they don't like people who look....yeah. I’m sorry I should have said something.."  
“Nah. You’re good. I’m used to the looks. Comes with dressing like this.”  
"But it's not fair! Yes, you dress like that and can be vulgar a lot of the time, but you aren't mean or anything...” He trails off blushing realizing he's rambling. Remus chuckles and shrugs.   
“Sucks for people like your parents who judge a book by its cover.” Patton nods biting his lip. He looks up again after a while.   
"I'm sorry if I was ever mean to you before.." Remus shakes his head.   
“It’s fine.” He assures and Patton offers a small relieved smile. Remus smiles too, but rubs the back of his neck. If they were on the topic of apologies he might as well.   
“Also I’m sorry about before. I have, like, no filter. You’re just really nice and I want to be your friend and I was afraid I scared you off...done that enough times already.” Patton shakes his head blushing darkly as he squeaks out a reply, the memories of what Remus said returning to the forefront of his mind.  
"I-Its fine I asked after all.." Remus blushes a little watching as Patton intently looks at the floor. He decides to change the subject  
"D-Do you still want to watch the movies and stuff tomorrow?" Patton looks up immediately.  
“Yeah! O-Only if you still want to that is.” Remus smiles and nods,  
"Mhmm if you do then I do.." Patton grins before looking out the window, eyes widening when he realizes how dark it's gotten.  
"Do um, do you want me to walk you home?'  
"Nah, it's fine. Don't want you to end up walking home by yourself in the dark." Patton frowns slightly because that's exactly what Remus would be doing but nods.  
"Okay, just, let me know when you get home safe?"  
"Of course! Uh, do you do hugs?" Patton blushes again.  
"I mean not before but um I liked the hug before so I-I wouldn't mind doing it more." He stammers.  
"Sorry.."  
"Oh, no don’t be! I really liked it, a lot actually, hugs are actually super nice what I was trying to say was yes I do hugs..now. I do hugs now because, yeah, I’m shutting up now.” Remus blushes a little at Patton’s outburst as he smiles at him, opening his arms for a hug.   
"Hug before I go?" Patton nods and hugs him tightly, gigging when Remus hugs him back. Remus grins. Gods, this boy was too cute. After a little bit, Patton steps back blushing.  
"I'll see you at school tomorrow." Re smiles.  
"See ya." Patton nods.  
He watches as the punk boy grabs his stuff and heads downstairs, putting his shoes on. He pauses for a second and tries to figure out why the inside of his shoes are a little damp. He looks over towards the living room as he pulls them on and ties them anyway.  
"Thank you for having me over Mr. and Mrs. Hart."  
"Of course Remus, have a blessed evening!" The father smiles. Remus smiles, nods, and waves as he leaves. Once he is around the corner he sighs letting himself relax as he lights up a cigarette for his walk home. He can help it and thinks of Patton on his way home, making him smile. He takes his time enjoying the stars as he walks, he soon finds himself looking up at his house; Remus stomps out his cigarette before heading inside.  
Patton would normally be reading his bible but instead is watching his phone, waiting for a message from Remus letting him know he was alright. He gets happy butterflies when his phone chimes with a text.  
‘Home safe.’  
'Thanks, Remus'  
'No problem :)'  
Patton giggles at the smiley face and curls up in bed, he blinks surprised when his phone goes off again Remus had sent a selfie of him laying in bed with his tongue sticking out as he is smiling and giving a peace sign. He giggles and sends one back of him grinning, his hair a mess from laying down.   
Remus blushes at how cute he looks and grins at his phone. He liked Patton quite a lot. He sends him another picture of him grinning, his hair a mess from his pillow along with a text. 'See you tomorrow :)'  
He receives one of Patton with his tongue out cheek red from blushing and his glasses askew, an extremely cute picture of someone who still didn't know how to take a proper selfie. He loved it, smiling as he reads the text along with it,   
‘Sweet dreams!’  
'Sweet dreams ;3' he replies. Gods, he was too cute, he quickly saves the pictures of Patton to his phone, smiling brightly the whole time. He rolls over to put his phone on charge, wincing at the movement in his shoulder. He sighs and got a bag of peas to lay on before his eyes grew heavy and he fell asleep. If he were to dream about a sunny, freckled Disney prince feeding the animals, then who would judge him but himself?

**Author's Note:**

> I really hope you guys enjoy this! My boyfriend and I have put a lot of work and effort into creating this AU for the past few months. If you want more info into this AU please visit out Tumblr, @alarichart.


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